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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
FAR HILLS, 46.9 miles (150 alt., 560 pop.), shares a Lackawanna R.R.
station with BEDMINSTER, 0.5 miles R. (see Tour 6). Large estates of
wealthy New Jersey families outlie both communities, which are separated
by the North Branch of the Raritan River. Just W. of the river is the
green stubble field (R) of the BURNT MILLS POLO CLUB. Far Hills is the
scene of an annual horse and cattle show. Its twin village, Bedminster, is
the center of a gentleman-farming area where manorial life is more important than crops. Hunting to hounds is a favorite sport of the proprietors and their friends.
At 48.3 miles is the junction with US 206 (see Tour 6). US 202 and US
206 are united for 7.5 miles.
Just south of the junction is the old BEDMINSTER CHURCHYARD (R).
The First Dutch Reformed Church, whose congregation the cemetery once
accommodated, was built in 1759 on land granted by Jacob Vanderveer, a
prominent banker. It no longer stands, but the graves of several early
settlers are still visible. One of them reads: "Under this stone are deposited the remains of Julia Knox, an infant who died the 2nd day of
July 1779, She was the daughter of Henry and Lucy Knox of Boston in
New England." Henry Knox was General Knox of the Continental Army,
then quartered at the Vanderveer house; and the simple inscription on the
grave veils a story of rigid eighteenth-century religiosity. The story runs
that Jacob Vanderveer had an insane daughter who was refused burial in
the churchyard because she was "possessed of the devil." No man to flout
his church elders, Vanderveer buried her in a little enclosure on his own
land next the churchyard. When Knox's baby daughter died the performance was repeated; Julia was ruled ineligible for burial in the churchyard
because her father was a Congregationalist. Mindful of his own experience,
Vanderveer provided the Knoxes with a burial plot alongside his daugh-
ter's grave. Years later, the church accepted the land as part of its official
graveyard. Till then, however, a narrow fence separated the graves of the
two outcasts from the consecrated ground.
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